We Can't Be Friends: Chapter One
It was a week after the sports festival and Aoi Minoru barely had any time to reflect on it. Between classes resuming a couple days after, and her own personal training sessions at the studio, she didn't have a minute to breathe, let alone think.
The only thing that had been on her mind post-festival was: did her best friend Shiya Okamatsu resent her?
During the festival, they had been pit against each other during the battle rounds, and even though Aoi lost, she was still afraid her friend held some type of grudge against her for doing so. She didn't work hard enough, she didn't take being a hero seriously enough, et cetera, et cetera. Shiya would never say such atrocious things to her face, but could she be thinking them?
During the battle, Aoi has brought out moves she'd never shown anyone. She had been practicing in private, after being in the studio, controlling her abilities.
See, Aoi had the ability to hone crystal almost out of thin air. She sometimes—with enough practice— could transform the ground into crystal as well. It was one of the things that made her a rather popular idol as well: the way she literally could shine on stage. She used her power to shoot crystal-sized bullets at her friend during their battle, and make the ground too slick to walk on – for someone not used to treading on it, anyway. She made sure to practice.
But Shiya could harness the power of the stars, so to speak, and create flurries of attacks like beams and simple strikes. Though Aoi's crystals could be thick, they were no match for Shiya's attacks, and how quick they were, and she ended up down for the count. All Aoi could remember was Shiya standing over her with a blank expression on her face – her usual countenance, but something in her bright yellow eyes appeared different.
Aoi tried to ask Shiya's older sister, Shiyu, about her since she was also her singing coach, but the younger sister, though almost a twin with her dark skin and light hair, didn't speak to her family much. Nothing against her family, she just didn't speak to anyone. Other than Aoi, that is.
And that was up until recently.
But Aoi chopped it up to being too busy between school and work to discuss anything like the delicate thread of their friendship.
"Minoru, what are you wearing?" It was Ochako Uraraka, approaching her with her group of friends from the other side of the hallway.
"I have practice at four," Aoi reminded her with a smile.
Today Aoi was wearing an off-white knee-length dress that was decked out in florals, which appeared rather ostentatious for a school hallway. It brought out the soft blue of her hair and eyes.
"Oh, right, how is that going by the way?" asked Izuku Midoriya. Aoi thought, though inquisitive, Midoriya was probably one of the most nice people in the entire school. Compared to his childhood friend, Katstuki Bakugo, he was an absolute saint.
"Tiring, as you can expect, but great." Then, "Okamatsu is going to let me work under her for the work study program."
"Wait, Okamatsu?" Now it was Tenya Iida getting inquisitive. "Isn't she kind of young? And a student?"
"No, her sister. She's my vocal coach, but she also owns a small hero organization." Speaking of which, "Have you seen her? Okamatsu?"
They all shook their head.
"Oh well, I'll catch her next time." Aoi moved to walk passed them in the hall, waving as she did so. "I'll talk to you guys tomorrow!"
Bidding farewell, she rushed through the hall, down the stairs, and almost ran straight into Shoto Todoroki at the bottom.
"I'm so sorry," she said as he feet hit the bottom, narrowly avoiding him.
He gave her a blank stare with his odd eyes, then he blinked as if he remembered something. "I remember you now. From the festival."
"Ah… yes. We're also classmates, Todoroki," she reminded him, a little half-heartedly. He didn't really look up from the ground, so it was no wonder he didn't recognize her.
"Right." And with that, he turned away to go upstairs, as if the conversation didn't even happen.
She couldn't dilly-dally any longer; she'd dawdled long enough in this school and would be missing valuable prep time for her idol showcase coming up at the end of the week. Now out the door, she turned her head just in time to see a familiar long, blonde ponytail sway in the wind. She nearly stopped in her tracks to yell out Shiya's name, but she truly didn't have time.
Another time, then.
The next day, they were to pick or be picked for their work study assignments. Aoi submitted her form to work with Shiyu Okamatsu's organization, a sort of misfit band—no pun intended—of people that she got together to fight crime by day, and do idol work by night and on the weekends. It was something that Aoi hoped she could do when her time to become a hero came to be, so she hoped to really learn by Shiyu.
Shiya picked someone in a completely different district, it appeared; no one she knew. Maybe that was for the better.
Aoi was going to text her last night, but by the time she got home from practice, and then training, it was rather late. Shiya didn't really sleep until late into the night, anyway, but still Aoi wanted to be considerate. Besides, Shiyu had to have brought up that Aoi had been asking about her at work, right? And still Shiya avoided her?
Why?
Before long, everyone was deep into their work study. But for Aoi, this was something she'd already been doing. Training, idol work, training again. Now she had more time to do both.
"Why do you look so down, Aoi?" asked Shiyu as she tightened the bow on Aoi's hero costume; because of her crystal abilities and her idol work, Hatsume wanted to blend in both and gave her this blue spandex suit with a bit of frill on the thighs and a little bow on the back. Shiyu decided they would end the night with some patrolling, which Aoi didn't necessarily mind since her heart wasn't in the music anyway.
"It's… your sister. I think she's mad at me."
Finally, she said the stupid thing out loud.
Instead of sympathizing, Shiyu laughed.
"Hey! What's so funny?" Now Aoi's cheeks turned bright red with chagrin; if only she hadn't opened her big mouth.
"She's not mad at you." Shiyu turned to put on her hero mask; her own hero costume was all black, almost blending with her dark skin, and her hero mask tied around her thick peach hair. Her hero power is to turn into a dark cloud, and sometimes even disappear altogether. Her hero name: Mist. "She's just been upset because she beat you up is all."
"Wait, what?" The flames in her cheeks subsided. "For real?" Oh, Aoi could cry; her friend of twelve years wasn't angry with her after all. What a relief.
"Now come on. There's evil afoot."
Aoi paused at the door. "Really?" Then she caught up to Shiyu. "I've been working really hard; if there are villains, I'll be able to stop them."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, rookie. If you see any villains, you leave them to me." Shiyu looked the most serious Aoi had ever seen her.
"Right." Aoi wanted to argue with her, but thought it best not to do so.
As they strolled through the streets, Aoi's phone pinged. She pulled it out, and saw it was Midoriya sharing his location. Weird. But something about it seemed… off. No message, just this. As the crowd thickened, she seemed to have lost Shiyu. She would have relayed such information to her mentor, however… there was no time now.
Rushing through the crowd of people, she followed the ping on her phone until she reached an alleyway. On the other side, Todoroki was coming up, also staring at his phone.
"Midoriya?" she guessed.
Before he could answer, someone called out to them to move. Was that Midoriya? Aoi shoved her body against the edge of the alley then peeked in; within, was quite the sight to see.
Iida was lying on the ground, as well as a pro hero, it appeared, and Midoriya was frozen in place.
In the center of it all: The Hero Killer: Stain.